Marketplace : Product Reviews :
Product Reviews June 2006
Each month Teaching Pre K-8 reviews outstanding products for the classroom.
This month's products are:
Corwin Press
Dixon Ticonderoga
Kumon Publishing North America
Evan-Moor Educational Publishers
Peachtree Publishers
Family Learning Association
Edcon Publishing Group
Barron's Reader's Clubhouse
From Corwin Press
It's often difficult to grasp what an author is getting at when he or she is describing a technique or strategy. That's not true of Diane Barone and Joan Taylor who give us Improving Students' Writing – From Meaning – Making to High Stakes! We love the clean layout and user-friendly charts, explanations and examples.
This book provides teachers ways to use writing to extend thinking while developing the craft of writing. Both theoretical and practical considerations about writing instructions are included, but the strong voices of classroom teachers rings through every strategy.
Obviously these are tested techniques and ideas. Literacy connections are described. There are only six chapters in this book: Chapter one explores writing to learn and understand. Chapter two moves on to informational writing. Chapter three moves from informational writing and reading to narrative writing, and includes a writing workshop. Chapter four centers on writing as a craft – writing for real purposes. Chapter five tackles assessment and is so helpful with discussions of holistic scoring, primary trait scoring and portfolio assessments. Chapter six is targeted to conversations that support students as they develop writing proficiency.
The whole approach in this book is supporting student writers from kindergarten through grade eight and the all-important role of the teacher in building a classroom that provides opportunities for supportive practice.
This is a great summer read. Just $30.95 for the paperback version and $67.95 for the hardbound book. There's s/h to be added on each price.
Corwin Press
www.CorwinPress.com
The World's Most Comfortable Pencil
Those are the words Dixon Ticonderoga uses to describe their newest pencil. Playing with their name, they're calling the pencils Tri-Conderoga. In addition to being three-sided, this pencil has a "soft-touch" finish.
This three-sided pencil was developed after the company's research team discovered that consumers grasp writing instruments in a natural tripod hold. They feel the shape insures stress-free writing.
So, just get used to the fact that you can buy your favorite No. 2 pencil sporting a black finish, that will feel even better in your hand. For pencil chewers, you don't have to worry about the new finish – it's non-toxic and certified by the Pencil Manufacturers Association. We expect the best and we get it from Dixon Ticonderoga, one of the oldest corporations in America (1795!). Try these new No. 2s. We think you'll like them as much as your kids will. Your local stationery or school supply store should have these available for you.
Dixon Ticonderoga
www.DixonUSA.com
Kumon (for Parents)
Many of us remember the Kumon Math program. Well, Kumon also has 20 workbooks, based on the tenets of the Kumon Learning Method, to help parents introduce kids to math and numbers, letters and reading and fine motor skills.
The Kumon method features individualized learning, self-learning, consistent learning and advanced learning. It is tailored to suit each individual's needs and abilities so that kids can progress by stages at their own pace.
The books we saw were My First Book of Uppercase Letters, My Book of Rhyming Words, My Book of Numbers (1-30), My Book of Number Games (1- 70), My Book of Simple Addition, My First Book of Cutting, My First Book of Tracing, and one on 3-D Paper Crafts – Animals.
Most of these books are for three-to-five-year-olds, although some are for four-to-sixes. There are 80 pages in each book except the 3-D Paper Crafts – Animals, which has 16 pages. The format of each book is step-by-step whether one is forming letters, learning to add (learning number sequence while saying the numbers aloud for reinforcement), learning to cut, etc. The books are really well designed for use by parent and child together.
The 3-D Paper Crafts book Cat & Dog (for ages seven and up) provides cut-out patterns for a cat and a dog. This one requires cutting, folding and pasting skills and provides an opportunity to build fine motor skills, to learn sequencing and to learn to follow directions. The language arts books follow the word-family approach.
The really nice part of these books is that there are no times allotted for each step; parents realize that the child will move at his or her pace and in stages. And that's an invaluable insight for parents. These books are available through bookstores and online bookstores.
Kumon Publishing North America
www.kumonbooks.com
Evan-Moor
This favorite publisher has turned out some really nice products for your consideration. We picked three we especially liked.
The first title is from the "Take It to Your Seat Learning Centers" series and is Writing Centers – Grades 2-3. This book contains 13 centers that are self-contained and portable. Once the teacher has made the centers (all file folders), they're ready to go.
There are handy suggestions on just how to put the folders together and nice reproducibles so you can keep track of which centers each child has completed. The student directions are well-illustrated and even your lowest group will be successful working their way through the centers.
The topics of the writing center at Grades 2-3 cover drawing and writing about forest animals, word puzzles, making a complete sentence, a shape poem, parts of a story, story starters, a friendly letter proofreading and more. All 192 pages are just chockful of practice ideas. (These activities are not to introduce skills, but to practice them.) Just $24.99 at your local school supply dealer or see the Evan-Moor website. A second title we liked a lot was from the "Early Childhood Thematic Series." It's for PreK-K and is All About the Ocean. This 208-pager includes: five colorful circle-time storybooks; full-color storyboard cutouts; art, cooking, outdoor, and music/dramatic play activities; learning centers; reproducible language and math activities; and alphabet picture cards.
The five storybooks include The Ocean, Near the Shore, In the Deep Ocean, How We Move on the Ocean and Taking Care of the Ocean. There are neat take-home storybooks for each of these topics. Counting exercises, matching exercises and other familiar strategies make it easy for children to get the most out of the unit.
Other titles in the series are The Farm, My World, Plants, Insects, My Body, The Rainforest, The Pond, The Weather and Animals Around the World. Each have five storybooks, etc., just as the book described above. This one is $21.99.
The final title we want to tell you about is the Read & Understand Stories and Activities in English and Spanish, Grade 3. Whether you have a bilingual class, two-way immersion or a dual-language classroom, you don't want to miss this series or this particular title.
There are 31 one- and two-page selections in English and Spanish with follow-up activities to practice essential skills in comprehension, vocabulary, phonics, structural analysis and fluency. The selections cover myths, legends, nonfiction, poetry and lots more. They help kids build skills from recalling details, inferring and predicting, reading to follow directions, sequence events, work with antonyms and categorization, to using reference materials and writing an informational paragraph. There are 300 pages of material that are correlated to state standards and provide practice of the Reading First Essential Skills. $29.99.
This book is part of the "Read and Understand" series that range from poetry through science, celebrating diversity and literature genres.
You know you can rely on Evan-Moor materials, and the products we've highlighted here will find a home in your classroom for many years to come. You can buy from Evan-Moor (add s/h) or from your school supply dealer.
Evan-Moor Educational Publishers
www.evan-moor.com
Jake's 100th Day of School
This is the title of Lester Laminack's newest gem. We do love his books; there are layers upon layers and that makes it wonderful to use his books as discussion starters and read-alouds.
Jake's 100th Day of School (Peachtree Press 2006) portrays the typical 100th day celebration, or so the readers think. But what happens when a collection of 100 wonderful, irreplaceable things is left at home?
An understanding principal is what happens and the rest is magic. This is a book you'll want in your classroom library. Ages 4-8, 32 pages. $16.95. At your local bookstore.
Peachtree Publishers
www.peachtree-online.com
Building a Strong Vocabulary
This isn't a new book, but one we think is always worth bringing to your attention. It presents a 12-week plan for students and is authored by Carl B. Smith of Family Learning Association. This Association was founded by Carl in 1989 and provides research, information and publications for families who are interested in building character and habits of learning.
Carl is also director of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English and Communication. His knowledge of just how kids learn is apparent in this vocabulary book. The first chapter is entitled "Expand on What You Know." This provides a feeling of accessibility for kids. The following 11 chapters take students step by step to a realization that a good vocabulary really can be achieved and is something that we continue to "grow" throughout our lives.
Although this book is directed to students, teachers will find that a copy is a super addition to the classroom. Just $12.95 plus s/h. And don't forget to contact Carl about the other materials he has available. There are great newsletters and some teacher handbooks you'll love.
Family Learning Association
www.kidscanlearn.com
Wordmaster
These handbooks – one for each level, six through nine – has a subtitle, Seeing and Using Words. And its content does just that: It helps students recognize roots, prefixes and suffixes; teaches them how to use context clues to derive word meaning; improve spelling; develop skill in the use of different forms of words; develop sight word skills and acquire new vocabulary.
There are 30 lessons in each book, plus Exercise pages, an answer key and a progress chart. Each of the lessons or "sequences" has six sections: Writing the Words, Using Context Clues, Checking the Meaning, Completing the Sentences, Using the Skill and a Supplementary Writing Exercise.
There's also an additional section that contains Sentences for Spelling Exercise.
If you have some kids struggling at grades six, seven, eight and nine, these workbooks might do the trick and save you from preparing all those practice sheets. These books are also terrific for ESL. They're just $16.95 each (151 pages) plus s/h.
Check Edcon Publishing Group's website for high-interest/low-readabilty Shakespeare. Terrific titles.
Edcon Publishing Group
www.edconpublishing.com
Barron's Reader's Clubhouse
The Clubhouse is a new phonics-based series, supporting the learning process and providing kids from preschool to grade one with a solid foundation for reading.
This series consists of two nine-book sets, (short vowels in Set One and long vowels in Set Two). All 18 titles will be available in July. Each title emphasizes one phonics family. The first five books in each set focus on one vowel sound and the remaining four books combine some vowel sounds or reviews them all. Each fiction title suggests a brief activity that allows kids to interact with the book's subject matter. The nonfiction titles are photo-illustrated. Each title is $3.99 plus s/h.
Now for the different part: Each of the lessons is reinforced by play-and-learn ideas on the Reader's Clubhouse website, www.barronsclubhouse.com. Kids visiting the Clubhouse will receive a membership package and access to an online reading journal along with puzzles, games and so on. Parents will find family activities, recipes featuring words from the series and tips for building phonic skills. There's also a Clubhouse Monthly Teacher Pack for classroom handouts and ideas.
Barron's Reader's Clubhouse
www.barronsclubhouse.com
